Just wanted to get your opinion about whether I should include an addendum concerning two issues.

1. Got a C in a college course when I was a junior in high school. Pretty much all of my grades from college are in the A-/A range now and I haven't gotten anything lower than a B+ in college. Should I assume that the admissions officers will notice that I got the C a long time ago as a high school kid and discount it a little or would it benefit me to mention this in an addendum?

2. I've been enrolled in language classes that were much too difficult for me. I grew up in a native speaking household, but only spoke to my parents in English. The lecturers/professors at my school would not let me enroll into intro classes, but they also acknowledged that, given my mastery of the language, it would be nearly impossible for me to get a good grade in the classes they wanted me to take, which I ended up taking... and ended up getting my worst grades in college in these classes.

It doesn't sound like a big deal, but when I look at the numbers at lawschoolnumbers.com, it seems like these two issues really hinder my chances from entering some of the top schools and I'm probably looking at less scholarship $ from the lower of the T-14 schools. I really don't want to come off as a whiner and know that many others have their own problems; should I attach an addendum regarding either of these issues?

I was planning on writing an addendum for getting a bad grade at a CC when I was a freshman in high school, but now those guys are making me reconsider :/

As for the second one, it's sad because it sounds like you really were placed in an unfair situation. I don't think you can write an addendum though, because you still a) took the classes that you seem to know you were going to do badly in and b) didn't P/F those classes. I hate when colleges and law schools punish you for trying to broaden your horizons, it seems so against the spirit of being a college student.

Yukos wrote:I was planning on writing an addendum for getting a bad grade at a CC when I was a freshman in high school, but now those guys are making me reconsider :/

As for the second one, it's sad because it sounds like you really were placed in an unfair situation. I don't think you can write an addendum though, because you still a) took the classes that you seem to know you were going to do badly in and b) didn't P/F those classes. I hate when colleges and law schools punish you for trying to broaden your horizons, it seems so against the spirit of being a college student.

What would this addendum say? "I was a dumb high school kid"? That doesn't excuse a bad grade, because there are thousands of equally dumb high school kids who didn't get bad grades in their college level classes.

Only write an addendum if you have a LEGITIMATE explanation, like health reasons or a family crisis.

Yukos wrote:I was planning on writing an addendum for getting a bad grade at a CC when I was a freshman in high school, but now those guys are making me reconsider :/

As for the second one, it's sad because it sounds like you really were placed in an unfair situation. I don't think you can write an addendum though, because you still a) took the classes that you seem to know you were going to do badly in and b) didn't P/F those classes. I hate when colleges and law schools punish you for trying to broaden your horizons, it seems so against the spirit of being a college student.

What would this addendum say? "I was a dumb high school kid"? That doesn't excuse a bad grade, because there are thousands of equally dumb high school kids who didn't get bad grades in their college level classes.

Only write an addendum if you have a LEGITIMATE explanation, like health reasons or a family crisis.

You right. For the record it was just going to be something like "Please note my LSDAS includes blah blah blah taken when I was 14 years old. My GPA not including this class is X.XX.

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate it. I wasn't going to write one without any approval and the consensus is definitely a no.

My addendum was probably going to be similar to the one that Yukos outlined and like Yukos said, it's kind of unfortunate how the whole system works. One guy I know refuses to take any courses that are difficult and has an impeccable gpa and others that actually want to learn seem to suffer due to taking more difficult, yet more engaging classes. Oh well! That's life I guess.

cartelshigh wrote:Thanks for the replies. I appreciate it. I wasn't going to write one without any approval and the consensus is definitely a no.

My addendum was probably going to be similar to the one that Yukos outlined and like Yukos said, it's kind of unfortunate how the whole system works. One guy I know refuses to take any courses that are difficult and has an impeccable gpa and others that actually want to learn seem to suffer due to taking more difficult, yet more engaging classes. Oh well! That's life I guess.

Sucks, but then again considering your GPA beyond a 3.5 is kind of unfair to begin with, considering they only give slight (if any) consideration to attending a more prestigious UG than say, a community college, or to a tougher major.

Also, I have a 6 hr B- on my transcript because I stupidly took spanish at my main school for a year (which was very tough for me) and it took off a good chunk from my GPA (3.84 to 3.76), and now that I'm taking the remaining courses elsewhere the B- is in a class that is totally irrelevant to my grade! This is due to some funky re-organization of the spanish curriculum at the 2 schools. Furthermore, I have a B in a course I didn't even need to take because my advisor gave me bad advising ( I went to clear up a problem concerning AP test grades, turns out I was right but didn't find that out until it was too late, resulting in me staying in a course I didn't do so well in that only serves to lower my GPA considering I already had the credit -.-).